A progressive outlook on politics in Australia and abroad

Hypocrisy ahoy!

Someone needs to shove Hawke and Keating to the right and include the 22% under Howard.

I don’t know how it will play with voters who might swing to the Coalition, but on the day that rates have risen it only makes me think about how incoherent Team Howard are in articulating their economic message. Jim McDonald has done a nice job of capturing the essence of the Big Lie they are trying to sell. Rudd is responding sensibly and strongly, but should be looking to move the campaign away from interest rates – now that the deed is done, get back to talking about what Labor is going to do. I think the interest rate rise has been so widely anticipated and there seems little ground to be made in it – those who are willing to punish Howard for being a liar have plenty of other reasons to do so, and the others who won’t just punish Howard to see him hurt need to be won over to the fact that Labor is better for Australia, not just on the economy but in terms of our society’s future.